Keeping A Straight Face | ✔

28 | The Performance, Pt. 1

*A/N: Charlie Puth is so fucking adorable in the How Long video clip. His bad dancing just makes it 100x better. Example of this dancing is in the gif above^. Happy reading!*

T A Y L O R ' S   P.O.V

Friday Evening, February 15th, 2014.

Tonight's been a blur. 

Apart from enduring Bella's endless showering of compliments and Miss Lauriana's panicked barking about who's performing when, I don't remember a thing. Hell, I haven't even seen Darko yet - or, maybe I have and I don't remember. Ergh.

I'm standing backstage, peeking through the garnet curtains separating me from the rest of the school. The performance that's currently being presented was a beautiful jazz song led by a girl in my class. She played the final notes from her saxophone before stopping, earning a round of applause from the audience as she bowed. I closed the curtain and sighed deeply, knowing that I'll be up there soon, confessing everything about myself to everybody, especially  Darko.

Fucking hell, this is daunting.

Outing myself to the school isn't what's terrifying me - I'm proud of who I am. If anybody has a problem with me, then they'd have to get through Owen first (he showed off his fists to me yesterday - I'm assuming that Darko nicknamed them, because the nicknames were both terrible and amusing).  What's terrifying to me is that even though I have proof of Darko's feelings, I still feel a slight fear of rejection. I guess that's going to be there no matter what. I'm not letting that stop me, though. It's too late to stop. 

I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, which simultaneously snapped me out of my thoughts and made me flinch. Turning around, I realized it was Owen, who was noticeably out of breath. 

"I'm... here... sorry..." he said between huffs. I furrowed my brows and grinned in amusement. 

"Why're you so exhausted?"

He sat on a chair, attempting to catch his breath. "Had to give Darko something, and had to make sure Bella kept her mouth shut. The damn girl knows how to disappear. Took me ages to find her. Had to run because our performance is so close."

"Dare I ask what you gave to Darko and how you got Bella to stay silent?" I asked, a little worried about the answers. Owen, finally composing himself, smiled at me.

"If things go well tonight, you'll see what I gave to Darko. And, as for Bella..." he said, pulling out his phone. He opened the voice recorder app and showed me a recording.

"Before I met up with you yesterday to practice our song, I heard a scream come from the girl's toilets. Turns out Bella and Nicole were in there, conspiring and plotting. At one point, Bella said why she loves you so much - she wants to mooch off of you when you become famous. I recorded it and told her I'd show it to you if she tried anything. There's no doubt shes going to try and ruin Darko after your performance. The recording shut her up immediately and will continue to shut her up, so long as my phone isn't broken."

I turned around, peeking through the curtain again. I could see Bella from here - she seemed nervous, judging from they way she fidgeted in her seat and was frantically looking around for something (probably me). I smiled smugly to myself, knowing that she finally got blackmailed. Karma is a bitch.

"Why doesn't she want me to know?" I asked rhetorically. Owen, ignoring my tone, answered me.

"Who knows dude. Maybe she knows how scummy she is and doesn't want you to see that side of her anymore. Or, maybe she's actually in love with you. Or, maybe, she doesn't want to jeopardize her chance of getting rich. It could go either way."